Lemonade

I've been getting a few bags of LOTS of lemons on sale through June & July and making fresh squeezed lemonade - it's SO wonderful in the summer!
Here is the recipe I'm using from here:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_lemonade/

Perfect Lemonade Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

Method

1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.
Serve with ice, sliced lemons.
Yield: Serves 6.

35 weeks

Had my appt on 7/24 and here's an update and some recent photos!

How far along: 35 weeks  (technically my 34 week appt... :))
Total weight gain: 18 pounds, baby's heartbeat was 142
Best moments this month: Still loving the baby moving and all those reminders that he or she is alive in there. LOVE that Lucy kisses my belly - a big MUAH - when we say give baby kissy :)
Food cravings: fruit, ice cream, iced coffee
Gender: Don't know!

Belly button in or out: definitely out a little
Labor signs: minor braxton hicks
What I miss: been feeling extra hot lately and have a hard time cooling down - the humidity has been killer for me and needing the air cranking at night too...
What I am looking forward to: Getting really excited to meet this little one and to know if it's a he or she! It's really hitting me that this is all real and going to happen whether I'm ready or not, so trying to be ready! Thankful that my mom came and helped me clean and get boy, girl and neutral clothes cleaned and put away in the nursery.

Milestones: Could be a month away from "labor day" - eeks!!!

34 weeks

35 weeks

"Life as a Thrifter"

First of all, you should certainly check out and or follow this blog.
LOVE. IT.

Look at this dining room - lovely.

Here are two posts I just love - I'm still exploring the site, but so far I love it all! Look at this post she found and reposted, isn't this the cutest thing?? Ahhhh, inspiring blogs and pinterest - such great ideas and so little time and energy to do them :)

http://lifeasathrifter.blogspot.com/2012/06/wednesday-redo-play-kitchen.html

No sew banner, because lets face it....I do not sew. sadly.

http://lifeasathrifter.blogspot.com/2012/06/wednesday-redo-boring-duds-to-brilliant.html

Ahhhh, love this!

Spray painting furniture?!?! Might need to do that on our couch & chair from Jubilee! :)

Another example: http://www.johnnyinadress.com/2011/08/spray-paint-your-sofa.html

Sorry can't get enough of these ideas..........

And LOVE this gal's bedroom. Definitely my dream room - cute, homey and mostly thrifted or made

(and her frame wall cost almost nothing, all from goodwill I think - she did a seperate post on it.)

Traveling with a Toddler....

We have done a lot of 2 hour Michigan car trips and not much more in the last 16 months. Some have been great, some good, some not so good and some horrible. But hey, it's just two hours, anyone can survive that.
So when the thought of a 4-5 hour trip JUST ME AND THE GIRL and 4-5 hour trip back in a 5 day period was approaching I was thankful that I had read these blogs and jumped on these ideas.
I hope these ideas help you as well and please feel free to leave me more ideas in the comments, I can use all the help I can get since we do not have a DVD player and soon we will have two - eeks!

So when I started packing for the trip, I kept in mind what I learned here - ideas for an 18 month old for a 14 hour car trip (EEKS!)
She listed out four categories of things she packed, including toys, snacks, activities, music and I learned a lot as far as how long with each item and alternating and what to pack.
I did a lot of this with alternating between books, interactive toys and snacks.
Definitely read this post - VERY helpful
http://smamak.blogspot.com/2012/05/surviving-mamaland-land-travel.html
Oooh and she just added 2 new posts after another longggg trip, hooray!
http://smamak.blogspot.com/2012/07/gators-jellyfish-and-cockroaches-oh-my.html


I also came across this blog post - although it is for airplane travel, the ideas were helpful as well:
http://laurengreensblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-travel-buddy.html

And last but not least, I pinned this on pinterest last night - 101 toddler activities for car trips, I will definitely read for next time we travel!
http://ayearwithmomanddad.com/2011/08/101-toddler-activities-road-trip/

Here are a few things that were huge for our trip and again - leave suggestions or tips if you have any!

took the legs off and let her play with this:

 favorite finger foods seem to last her a long time with eating and working on them

 these snack cups are genius - she kind of has to figure them out and work at getting each snack - also helpful in the car - takes time! :)

And mostly - prayer seemed to be the best thing! I couldn't believe there were no tears or screams shed the whole ride down to Taylor. Very thankful for all the people who were praying for the trip :)

32 week appt

Ok so I still am hoping I'm actually 33 weeks (34 now), but I won't get into that right now....

Measured: 32 cm
Weight: Up 17 lbs
Baby's heartbeat: 150
Feeling: Large and sore. still love going on walks with Lucy but it takes it's toll on me! My back and tummy get sore and this baby is still a strong mover, but thankfully I've been waking up feeling better each a.m.

Summer Camp 2012

We had such a great time at Taylor University this year for the 2012 GCD summer camp!
Our speaker spoke on John and all had some great times of learning, time in the word and prayer and time of fellowship and fun.
Here are some photos of our time there in June:

Daddy the dodgeball and paintball king!

Lucy and I spent a lot of time in Taylor Lake with friends Carley and Ruby :)

Anyone Read This Book?

http://www.crossway.org/books/date-your-wife-tpb/#/-1/

Ok - loving the title and idea... :)

And hey, I probably need one written called, "Date your Husbands..."

But anyway, has anyone read this or your husbands have read this? Do you recommend it?

TROOPS wedding

All the troops made it to Erica's wedding on 6-23-12 at the lake house, the usual spot of our yearly reunions. It was such a lovely evening wedding - everything was perfect, she looked amazing, it was SO fun to see all my girls, but it was definitely too short :(

Here are some photos from the event taken by Rachel, Kendal and Elizabeth:

Our newest trooplet, sweet Bonnie Lu

 

 

And because I loved this idea so much (stolen from Rachel C.).....here's a little history of this group our senior year and beyond:

Lots of memories and great times together and excited for many more to come. Love you all!